I think you may have misunderstand the post to which you replied. That post made that point that Chinese propaganda is about as reliable as the old Iraqi minister of information.
Consider China's accounting of their fighter jets being attacked by a US cargo airplane.
I have the latest iPod Touch firmware upgrade. I am not sure what they mean by "compatible" but that stuff does not work for me. However, those products do work with my iPod Shuffle.
My idea for an e-book reader is something I call Gutenberg friendly: It has what I need to download and display text, HTML, PDF, and Postscript files that I might download from Project Gutenberg or other open sites as well as software manuals. That and a $100 price tag could win me over to the e-book world.
Walgreens has the delstar for $99. About five weeks ago, newegg was selling the ectaco jetbook-lite for $99 (now $119), and sears was selling the similar aluretek libre for $99. I bought a used ipod touch for $85, which is an okay ebook reader.
Seems like we're getting there. I think that, within the next few months, $99 ebook readers will be common.
If it is all about the OS then Linux is going to eat Apple's lunch given enough time, and every time. There is very little that OS X has currently that isn't available in Linux.
Not as long as Linux uses X11. I am a Linux user myself, I am using Ubuntu right now. But, the sad truth is: X11 graphics are substantially inferior to Apple's graphics.
The accomplishments you mentioned come from a relative handful of brilliant people.
Statistically, shouldn't India have 4X as many brilliant people?
The US does have good academic resources available to those who want them and has a lot of wealth available for technology, research, and businesses to turn that intelligence into technology.
Why doesn't India have all that? The US was no BFD 150 years ago.
I think that the US also encourages more "adventurous" pursuits of success which results in higher highs and lower lows for our great minds.
That might explain a better economy, but academicians typically do not make the big bucks.
The US has vast resources and it's difficult to get here.
India has vast resources. Certainly vast human resources. How is an advantage to be difficult to get here?
The Early Europeans had to be hardy enough to endure sea voyages that would be worse than life rafts today.
What does that have to do with anything?
They got here, exploited the vast resources, and created a new and improved system based on the previous empire.
Same with India, no?
Now they had even more: Vast resources, a unique Republican form of government, and of course the vast oceans in the way.
How are the vast oceans helpful? Are you implying that the US has less to worry about militarily? If so, you are way off base. US military expenses are staggering by any measure.
The whole thing is a "filter" for high achievers. Anybody who doesn't appreciate the system doesn't come. The system works well, the Oceans and/or immigration procedures weed out the weeklings. Even the current problem with illegal immigrants is doing this. The smart ones don't get caught. It's a filter.
Again with the oceans, has that been a factor in the last century?
Of course, we have an incredible running start; but the jogger looks tired. Everybody talks about how the US isn't running as hard any more. It's a huge head start though. It would be interesting to see where this stands 100 years from now.
The US will not be the world economic leader by then, I feel certain of that.
That is probably not PC, but it's true. There are universities in the US that turned out Nobel prizes in technology than the entire nation of India - and India has four times the US population. In fact, I have read that are single high schools in the US that have turned out more Nobel prize winners than the entire nation of India.
Or, forget prizes, how about earth changing technologies such as nuclear power, heavier than air flight, or man on the moon - 41 years ago. I think it's fair to say the US has more than it's share of technological accomplishment.
When it comes to world-changing tech companies, there is absolutely no comparison, the US has: Apple, Adobe, AT&T, Cisco, IBM, GE, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Motorola, Google, HP, IBM, and dozens more. I can not think of anything from India.
As I understand it, in India today they almost obsessive about how their children do on standardized tests, and the like. But when it comes to actual accomplishments, not so much.
When I was doing some contract work at Sun, about two years ago, Sun was also eating their own dog food, SunRays everywhere. I wonder if Oracle could ditch windows internally?
I suppose Apple has already ditched windows.
I think somebody posted that IBM was going that way. I think it would be a good idea.
How about the "me generation" 80s, which led to more of the same in the 90s? The self-absorbed 70s? The Viet-Nam era 60s? How about the 50s when the N-word was part of polite conversation? How about the 40s when genocide and global domination were in vogue? Maybe we were more empathetic in past centuries, when we had slavery and which burning? Or maybe things were better way back when we had the inquisitions, and the crusades?
Mind you, I am still young -31- and yet I can see the youngsters around me (and not only the youngsters, people of all ages seem to be affected) just don't care about anything or anyone anymore.
Compared to when exactly? How about during WWII when a lot of young people killed off six million jews? How about the fabulous 50s when the "N-word" was a part of polite conversation?
When was it when people where so good and caring? I hope you don't the completely hypocritical hippies.
If we made a website declaring Jesus Christ was a homosexual, wouldn't this anger Christians in this country and don't you think that certain individuals would want the website banned?
That is an inaccurate comparison. Muslims are not having fits about Muhammad being portrayed as a homosexual. Muslims having fits about Muhammad being portrayed at all. Why not compare apples to apples?
Consider the show "South Park" Jesus is a regular character. Are Christians up-in-arms about it?
And frankly, I am very certain that you would not see several days of rioting, with several people killed, if Jesus was portrayed as a homosexual.
Give Christianity back the power they had a in the dark ages and in a decade or two "peaceful" and "tolerant" Christians will be burning heathens on crosses in the name of their lord.
1) You don't know that.
2) In case you have not noticed, Christian nations have given up on theocracies centuries ago. So it appears that Christians have progressed beyond the ignorant barbarian stage, which is more than Muslims can say.
So how is this different from the present situation?
Assuming every IRS worker goes around with a laptop that contain a complete database of every US taxpayer, would such a lost laptop have my information anyway?
Besides, are we concerning the issue of data security, with privacy? Just so I understand the issue, if there was no issue with unauthorized accessed to government databases, would there still be an issue with privacy? If so, what is the issue?
Now imagine that those "several" databases are replaced by one database.
Which, yet again, begs the question: so friggin' what?
What will the government, or anybody else, know about me that they do not already know, or can not easily find out?
Here in the USA, illegal immigrants usually have to use fake IDs to get jobs, or social services. These fake IDs are far too easy to obtain. The same illegals often share social security numbers. I know for a fact that there are more than forty "Jose Gonzales" sharing the same social security number.
In a complex society, such as the US or UK, meaning ID is critically important; and in the US we don't have it. No wonder identity theft is such a huge problem.
Seriously, is that not the way that msft has conquered every market in the last ten years, or more?
Msft is very clever in leveraging it's monopoly in one technology, to almost force you to buy other msft technologies. For example, outlook will not really work right without exchange. You can not view certain websites without having the right version of msie, which in turn requires you to have to have the right version of windows.
Over the five years, or so, it seems that msft is more of a litigation company than anything else.
Msft has always made products that are mediocre at best. But, msft can get people to buy those products anyway by leveraging their monopoly, bribing officials, controlling much of the media, astro-turfing, and so on.
Msft does not need a good product to win, just a good team of lawyers, a good PR firm, some well placed political contributions, and some to leverage their monopoly in other products.
An ID card doesn't. An ID card that's linked to a database with a unique ID that's used to tie it to information in other databases across various governmental and non-governmental departments and organizations, that infringes on privacy.
How so? So what if you're in a database. I am already in several databases, and it makes no difference to me. What exactly are you scared of those governments, or whatever, doing with your information?
Assuming I am not a terrorist, criminal, tax evader, or illegal alien, how does an ID infringe on my privacy? I hear this all the time, but it has never made any sense to me. An ID just proves that I am who I say I am, how does that directly lead to spy cameras in my bedroom, and an rfid chip in my shoe?
OMFG! The government will know where I live! But, if I file taxes, doesn't the government already know that? Is it not easy for the government to know when travel out of the country?
Disclosure: I am an American, but we have discussed the idea of national ID as well. Also, I hold a security clearance, so the government knows all about me: blood type, financial records, work history, medical records, and so on. Frankly the government knowing that stuff does not make the first bit of difference in my day to day life.
Apparently Murdoch is afraid that everybody will get their news from google, instead of going to the news site. But, news.google.com only provides a quick over-view, to read the full article, you have to go to the site.
Isn't it helpful to Murdoch to let google get people interested in the story, so that the people may then go to the full article? The alternative is: people will not know anything about the story, and ignore the Murdoch site altogether.
Hopefully, people will Murdoch's news sites, just because Murdoch is such an ass.
I guess that's why the US has done so poorly in technology, while the "best and brightest" from India do so well?
Care to compare Nobel prizes? It's my understanding that there are single high-schools in the US that have produced more Nobel than the entire nation of India. This in spite of the fact that India has about four times the US population. Compare the number of Nobel prizes from Berkeley to the entire nation of India.
Care to compare major technological break-throughs? Man on the moon, heavier than air flight, nuclear power, etc? How about just major advances in computer technology?
Care to compare tech companies? US has: Apple, Microsoft, IBM, AT&T, GE, Cisco, Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, HP, Intuit, Adobe, etc.
Care to compare universities like MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, etc?
Seems to me that US employers have shown a strong preference for foreign workers. Less than 25% of people who work at IBM were born in the USA, and Bill Gates testifies before the US congress, all the time, saying the US needs to raise H1B caps.
Why bother with any kind of tech degree, when you will just have your job offshored anyway. Either that or you will be training your H1B replacement.
Slashdot Mirror
If this has X11, I doubt it will be especially lightweight. I also doubt that graphics will be worthwhile.
For a tablet device, why is Ubuntu better than Android?
I think you may have misunderstand the post to which you replied. That post made that point that Chinese propaganda is about as reliable as the old Iraqi minister of information.
Consider China's accounting of their fighter jets being attacked by a US cargo airplane.
I have the latest iPod Touch firmware upgrade. I am not sure what they mean by "compatible" but that stuff does not work for me. However, those products do work with my iPod Shuffle.
My idea for an e-book reader is something I call Gutenberg friendly: It has what I need to download and display text, HTML, PDF, and Postscript files that I might download from Project Gutenberg or other open sites as well as software manuals. That and a $100 price tag could win me over to the e-book world.
Walgreens has the delstar for $99. About five weeks ago, newegg was selling the ectaco jetbook-lite for $99 (now $119), and sears was selling the similar aluretek libre for $99. I bought a used ipod touch for $85, which is an okay ebook reader.
Seems like we're getting there. I think that, within the next few months, $99 ebook readers will be common.
I know there are some great Android phones, that have come out fairly recently. But, I don't see many other Android devices that are worthwhile.
I keep reading $99 Android devices that are coming out, but I have to suspend judgment until I can actually buy one.
If it is all about the OS then Linux is going to eat Apple's lunch given enough time, and every time. There is very little that OS X has currently that isn't available in Linux.
Not as long as Linux uses X11. I am a Linux user myself, I am using Ubuntu right now. But, the sad truth is: X11 graphics are substantially inferior to Apple's graphics.
Of course, on Android, that's not a problem.
Why is parent post considered a troll? Just because of language?
Frankly, I think the parent post has a perfectly valid point.
The accomplishments you mentioned come from a relative handful of brilliant people.
Statistically, shouldn't India have 4X as many brilliant people?
The US does have good academic resources available to those who want them and has a lot of wealth available for technology, research, and businesses to turn that intelligence into technology.
Why doesn't India have all that? The US was no BFD 150 years ago.
I think that the US also encourages more "adventurous" pursuits of success which results in higher highs and lower lows for our great minds.
That might explain a better economy, but academicians typically do not make the big bucks.
The US has vast resources and it's difficult to get here.
India has vast resources. Certainly vast human resources. How is an advantage to be difficult to get here?
The Early Europeans had to be hardy enough to endure sea voyages that would be worse than life rafts today.
What does that have to do with anything?
They got here, exploited the vast resources, and created a new and improved system based on the previous empire.
Same with India, no?
Now they had even more: Vast resources, a unique Republican form of government, and of course the vast oceans in the way.
How are the vast oceans helpful? Are you implying that the US has less to worry about militarily? If so, you are way off base. US military expenses are staggering by any measure.
The whole thing is a "filter" for high achievers. Anybody who doesn't appreciate the system doesn't come. The system works well, the Oceans and/or immigration procedures weed out the weeklings. Even the current problem with illegal immigrants is doing this. The smart ones don't get caught. It's a filter.
Again with the oceans, has that been a factor in the last century?
Of course, we have an incredible running start; but the jogger looks tired. Everybody talks about how the US isn't running as hard any more. It's a huge head start though. It would be interesting to see where this stands 100 years from now.
The US will not be the world economic leader by then, I feel certain of that.
That is probably not PC, but it's true. There are universities in the US that turned out Nobel prizes in technology than the entire nation of India - and India has four times the US population. In fact, I have read that are single high schools in the US that have turned out more Nobel prize winners than the entire nation of India.
Or, forget prizes, how about earth changing technologies such as nuclear power, heavier than air flight, or man on the moon - 41 years ago. I think it's fair to say the US has more than it's share of technological accomplishment.
When it comes to world-changing tech companies, there is absolutely no comparison, the US has: Apple, Adobe, AT&T, Cisco, IBM, GE, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Motorola, Google, HP, IBM, and dozens more. I can not think of anything from India.
As I understand it, in India today they almost obsessive about how their children do on standardized tests, and the like. But when it comes to actual accomplishments, not so much.
When I was doing some contract work at Sun, about two years ago, Sun was also eating their own dog food, SunRays everywhere. I wonder if Oracle could ditch windows internally?
I suppose Apple has already ditched windows.
I think somebody posted that IBM was going that way. I think it would be a good idea.
Redhat maybe?
Who else?
How about the "me generation" 80s, which led to more of the same in the 90s? The self-absorbed 70s? The Viet-Nam era 60s? How about the 50s when the N-word was part of polite conversation? How about the 40s when genocide and global domination were in vogue? Maybe we were more empathetic in past centuries, when we had slavery and which burning? Or maybe things were better way back when we had the inquisitions, and the crusades?
Mind you, I am still young -31- and yet I can see the youngsters around me (and not only the youngsters, people of all ages seem to be affected) just don't care about anything or anyone anymore.
Compared to when exactly? How about during WWII when a lot of young people killed off six million jews? How about the fabulous 50s when the "N-word" was a part of polite conversation?
When was it when people where so good and caring? I hope you don't the completely hypocritical hippies.
If we made a website declaring Jesus Christ was a homosexual, wouldn't this anger Christians in this country and don't you think that certain individuals would want the website banned?
That is an inaccurate comparison. Muslims are not having fits about Muhammad being portrayed as a homosexual. Muslims having fits about Muhammad being portrayed at all. Why not compare apples to apples?
Consider the show "South Park" Jesus is a regular character. Are Christians up-in-arms about it?
And frankly, I am very certain that you would not see several days of rioting, with several people killed, if Jesus was portrayed as a homosexual.
Give Christianity back the power they had a in the dark ages and in a decade or two "peaceful" and "tolerant" Christians will be burning heathens on crosses in the name of their lord.
1) You don't know that.
2) In case you have not noticed, Christian nations have given up on theocracies centuries ago. So it appears that Christians have progressed beyond the ignorant barbarian stage, which is more than Muslims can say.
I can go to images.google.com, or images.yahoo.com, or -probably- a thousand other sites, and see images of Muhammad all day.
So how is this different from the present situation?
Assuming every IRS worker goes around with a laptop that contain a complete database of every US taxpayer, would such a lost laptop have my information anyway?
Besides, are we concerning the issue of data security, with privacy? Just so I understand the issue, if there was no issue with unauthorized accessed to government databases, would there still be an issue with privacy? If so, what is the issue?
Now imagine that those "several" databases are replaced by one database.
Which, yet again, begs the question: so friggin' what?
What will the government, or anybody else, know about me that they do not already know, or can not easily find out?
Here in the USA, illegal immigrants usually have to use fake IDs to get jobs, or social services. These fake IDs are far too easy to obtain. The same illegals often share social security numbers. I know for a fact that there are more than forty "Jose Gonzales" sharing the same social security number.
In a complex society, such as the US or UK, meaning ID is critically important; and in the US we don't have it. No wonder identity theft is such a huge problem.
Seriously, is that not the way that msft has conquered every market in the last ten years, or more?
Msft is very clever in leveraging it's monopoly in one technology, to almost force you to buy other msft technologies. For example, outlook will not really work right without exchange. You can not view certain websites without having the right version of msie, which in turn requires you to have to have the right version of windows.
Over the five years, or so, it seems that msft is more of a litigation company than anything else.
Msft has always made products that are mediocre at best. But, msft can get people to buy those products anyway by leveraging their monopoly, bribing officials, controlling much of the media, astro-turfing, and so on.
Msft does not need a good product to win, just a good team of lawyers, a good PR firm, some well placed political contributions, and some to leverage their monopoly in other products.
An ID card doesn't. An ID card that's linked to a database with a unique ID that's used to tie it to information in other databases across various governmental and non-governmental departments and organizations, that infringes on privacy.
How so? So what if you're in a database. I am already in several databases, and it makes no difference to me. What exactly are you scared of those governments, or whatever, doing with your information?
Assuming I am not a terrorist, criminal, tax evader, or illegal alien, how does an ID infringe on my privacy? I hear this all the time, but it has never made any sense to me. An ID just proves that I am who I say I am, how does that directly lead to spy cameras in my bedroom, and an rfid chip in my shoe?
OMFG! The government will know where I live! But, if I file taxes, doesn't the government already know that? Is it not easy for the government to know when travel out of the country?
Disclosure: I am an American, but we have discussed the idea of national ID as well. Also, I hold a security clearance, so the government knows all about me: blood type, financial records, work history, medical records, and so on. Frankly the government knowing that stuff does not make the first bit of difference in my day to day life.
Apparently Murdoch is afraid that everybody will get their news from google, instead of going to the news site. But, news.google.com only provides a quick over-view, to read the full article, you have to go to the site.
Isn't it helpful to Murdoch to let google get people interested in the story, so that the people may then go to the full article? The alternative is: people will not know anything about the story, and ignore the Murdoch site altogether.
Hopefully, people will Murdoch's news sites, just because Murdoch is such an ass.
I guess that's why the US has done so poorly in technology, while the "best and brightest" from India do so well?
Care to compare Nobel prizes? It's my understanding that there are single high-schools in the US that have produced more Nobel than the entire nation of India. This in spite of the fact that India has about four times the US population. Compare the number of Nobel prizes from Berkeley to the entire nation of India.
Care to compare major technological break-throughs? Man on the moon, heavier than air flight, nuclear power, etc? How about just major advances in computer technology?
Care to compare tech companies? US has: Apple, Microsoft, IBM, AT&T, GE, Cisco, Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, HP, Intuit, Adobe, etc.
Care to compare universities like MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, etc?
What really matters is what employers want. This blog post will explain what I mean:
http://techtoil.org/doku.php?id=articles:news_and_commentary
Seems to me that US employers have shown a strong preference for foreign workers. Less than 25% of people who work at IBM were born in the USA, and Bill Gates testifies before the US congress, all the time, saying the US needs to raise H1B caps.
Why bother with any kind of tech degree, when you will just have your job offshored anyway. Either that or you will be training your H1B replacement.